Prima la musica, poi le parole: «Divertimento» metateatral de G. B. Casti

Abstract

We rarely see in European literary or musical history the symbiosis of word-music so intensely felt as in certain 18th Century melodramas. We can find a meaningful example, in the melodic field, in one of Giambattista Casti’s initial works, entitled Prima la musica, poi le parole (Vienna 1786). It is possible to penetrate fully into the music of the libretto such as Antonio Salieri, through parody, where the themes were of the greatest concern within the theatrical/metatheatrical world in those days -the adaptation of a previously written text to a score and the clash between «opera seria» and «opera buffa».